Last week we entered the church season between Pentecost and Advent, often called Ordinary Time. It’s a time of growth on a personal, as well as in the fields and gardens. In this season I’m offering some reflections (mostly to myself) on ways to lean into being part of the “Jesus Movement” and “Love Revolution” spoken of by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry.
Last week I shared how Words can Impact those around us in
ways we may not intend. Sometimes, it’s even words that we don’t say. The May
25 Forward Day by Day reflection by Nia McKenney was based on 2 Corinthians
1:18: As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been “Yes and
No.” The author noted, “When we say yes, we are often saying yes aloud
but keeping the accompanying no to ourselves. When someone asks you to a
potluck, you may say, “Sure! I’ll be there,” but think to yourself, “I’ll go,
but I’m not bringing any food. I wasn’t asked to bring food…” All of that no is
wrapped up in the yes. When God asks things of us, we are called to answer with
a wholehearted yes—not one that is riddled with hidden no’s…The call comes the
way it comes. When I approach the things I feel God has called me to do, I
approach them with a heart entirely written over with yeses.”
McKenney’s words made me pause and think about the hidden
message of my own response to requests from God and from friends. She made me
think about the impact hidden no’s may have on me because Words are the way we
tell our stories. Words form our History. Words form our Bible understanding.
Words form our family stories. All story is also impacted by the internal tapes
(the hidden no’s) we bring to them, our own experiences, fears, prejudices,
etc.
We don’t like to acknowledge that there may be hidden biases
or no’s or mistakes in our comprehension of the Words of our Story, do we? I
certainly prefer to think my version of the Story is the right one. And, I can
get defensive if that is challenged.
Take a minute to think about a familiar Bible story. What do
you bring to that story? Do you have a hidden ‘No’ that keeps you from
responding fully to the message? Is there something about the setting of the
story that you are unsure about?
I recently watched a documentary on Amazon Prime about the
places St. Paul visited in the Cilicia region of Turkey. As the narrator noted,
unless we have an idea about the land including the terrain and roads he
travelled we don’t really understand what Paul was up against. We do the same
thing with history and with the Bible. We may see a picture of present-day
Bethlehem. That gives us no idea of what the town looked like 2000 years ago
when Mary and Joseph arrived. A movie or art image may impose itself on our
understanding, but is that real? A visit to the Church of the Nativity probably
isn’t going to be much help either. Somehow we need to peel back some of the
layers that time and tradition have overlaid to place ourselves into the story
more fully.
Even our image of Jesus might be skewed. Most of us have one
based on Sunday school pictures of a blonde, blue eyed, smooth skinned man. But
Jesus was a Galilean Jew and a carpenter. His hands were rough, feet calloused,
and his skin would not have been light. This image shows the Jesus so many of
us grew up with, beside a picture of what he more likely was like.
Another thing that influences our response to Bible stories, the narratives of society, and world history is the overlay of the teaching we got overtly or accidentally from teachers, family, Sunday School, friends, books, etc. We bring all those messages to our own story and our own interpretation of the Greatest Story ever told, and to our response to current events or our understanding of world history.
Rachel Held Evans has an interesting blog post about how the teachings of her upbringing affect the way she responds to the Bible. It’s the same for each of us. We respond to the Bible, history, current events, and life in general through the lens of the Words we have made part of our story.
Another author, Leslie Leyland Fields says, “We must get
ready to listen.” We need to hear the real Story beneath the Words and No’s.
She suggests we start by really listening to God in nature. She quotes Psalm 19:
Fields concludes her post by saying, “If all these voices
and shouting is going on, telling God’s story, all we have to do is stand still
long enough to look up and around, to hear it. (Then write it down! Start a
summer journal, a Journal of Listening.)” To
Heaven by Earthquake and Glacier — Leslie Leyland Fields
Can you take time this week to stand still and listen to God
in nature and let that Story of Creation and Re-creation seep into your own Story?
What new growth might spring into life and change some of the no’s or misconceptions
in how you hear Words? Maybe you’ll hear something new the next time you read
the words of a Bible story, or hear someone else tell a part of their Story.
Maybe you and I will hear God’s words in our own Story.
